Bladesmith

Bladesmithing is the art of making knives, swords, daggers and other blades using a forge, hammer, anvil, and other smithing tools.[1][2][3] Bladesmiths employ a variety of metalworking techniques similar to those used by blacksmiths, as well as woodworking for knife and sword handles, and often leatherworking for sheaths.[4] Bladesmithing is an art that is thousands of years old and found in cultures as diverse as China, Japan, India, Germany, Korea, the Middle East, Spain and the British Isles. As with any art shrouded in history, there are myths and misconceptions about the process. While traditionally bladesmithing referred to the manufacture of any blade by any means, the majority of contemporary craftsmen referred to as bladesmiths are those who primarily manufacture blades by means of using a forge to shape the blade as opposed to knifemakers who form blades by use of the stock removal method, although there is some overlap between both crafts.[5]

Historically speaking, bladesmithing is an art that has survived and thrived over thousands of years. Many different parts of the world have different styles of bladesmithing, some more well-known than others.

Ancient Egyptians referred to iron as "copper from the heavens" because their lack of smelting technology limited their accessible iron supplies to what little native iron they could recover from meteorites. Despite iron's rarity, they gained enough familiarity with ironworking techniques to have used wrought iron in the manufacture of swords and blades as early as 3000 BC.[6] They exported this technique to Assyria, Babylon and Greece through trade and as they conquered other lands and were conquered themselves.[6][7]

The Proto-CelticHallstatt culture (8th century BC) were among the earliest users of iron swords. During the Hallstatt period, they made swords both in bronze as well as iron with rounded tips. Toward the end of the Hallstatt period, around 600-500BC, these swords were replaced with short daggers. The La Tene culture reintroduced the sword, which were very different from the traditional shape and construction of the Bronze Age and early Iron Age, characterized by a more pointed tip.[6][8]

Traditional Chinese blades (jians) are usually of sanmei (three plate) construction, which involved sandwiching a core of hard steel between two plates of softer steel. The central plate protrudes slightly from its surrounding pieces, allowing for a sharp edge, while the softer spine protects the brittle core. Some blades had wumei or five plate construction, with two more soft plates being used at the central ridge. Bronze jian were often made in a somewhat similar manner: in this case an alloy with a high copper content would be used to make a resilient core and spine, while the edge would be made from a high-tin-content alloy for sharpness and welded onto the rest of the blade.

The swordsmiths of China are often credited with the forging technology that was carried to Korea and Japan, allowing swordsmiths in those places to create such weapons as the katana.[9][10] This technology included folding, inserting alloys, and differential hardening of the edge, which historically has been the most common technique around the world. While the Japanese would be more influenced by the Chinese dāo (single-edged swords of various forms), the early Japanese swords known as ken are often based on the jian. One-sided jians from the Tang dynasty provided the basis for various Japanese forging styles and techniques. The Korean version of the jian is known as the geom or gum, and these swords often preserve features found in Ming-era jian, such as openwork pommels and sharply angled tips.

Korea has a history of swordsmithing dating back 3,000 years.[citation needed] Although Korea was in close proximity to both Japan and China, no native systems of swordsmanship and swordmaking developed in Korea.[9][11][12]

Korean swords include long swords such as the yeoh do, geom, and hyup do and curved swords such as Samindo.[citation needed] Metal swords of double bladed leaf structure have been found throughout Korea dating back to the Bronze Age. These bronze swords were around 32 cm in overall length, with a short handle.[citation needed]

The technology that led to the development of the Japanese sword originated in China and was brought to Japan by way of Korea.[9] The oldest steel swords found in Japan date to the fourth or fifth century A.D.[9] Although appearing to be ceremonial in nature, samples of these straight blades preserved in the Shōsōin were hand-forged with hardened cutting edges. By the time of the Heian period (794—1185 AD) the Japanese sword took on its distinctive curved shape as a mounted horseman would have more use for a slashing type of blade as opposed to a thrusting type.[9] These swords were known as tachi.[9]

Due to the quality of metal found in Japan, Japanese bladesmithing became an extremely rigid, precise process, involving folding and forge-welding the steel many times over to create a laminated blade. By the time of the Kamakura period (1185–1333 AD), Japan was under the rule of a military class and repelling Mongol invasions. This became known as the "Golden era" of Japanese bladesmithing under Emperor Toba II, who became a bladesmith himself.[13] After adbicating, Toba II summoned Japan's finest bladesmiths around him in an effort to develop the perfect sword.[9] It was determined that a sword had to be hard in order to maintain a sharp cutting edge, yet hard steel is brittle and can shatter under the stress of a heavy blow.[9] Swordsmiths in Japan found the solution by wrapping a softer low-carbon steel core such as wrought iron, in a jacket of high-carbon steel and then hardening the edge.[9] However, under heavy usage, the edge would be more prone to chipping than its European counterparts, which were typically designed to deal with heavier armor than Japanese blades.[9] This was answered by allowing projections of softer steel known as ashi to form in the hardened cutting edge during differential hardening of the blade.[9]

The Mongol invasions brought with them a need for swords also suited for hand-to-hand combat and the smiths began manufacture of shorter blades to meet this need.[10] It was during the Muromachi period that the katana and tantō came into being.[9][10] By the sixteenth century, Japanese bladesmithing had become so renowned throughout Asia that the Japanese turned to large scale manufacturing of swords as an export to China.[10] Smiths at Sakai[14] also crafted knives for cutting tobacco, which had been introduced by the Portuguese. The Sakai bladesmithing industry received a major boost from the Tokugawa shogunate (1603–1868), which granted Sakai a special seal of approval and enhanced its reputation for quality.[10]

The Haitorei Edict in 1876 banned carrying of swords in public, which, combined with the decimation of the samurai class caused a heavy decline in the number of swords produced throughout the country. Sword-making was completely banned following World War II and did not resume until 1953, under heavy restrictions to preserve it solely as an art.[9][10] In modern-day Japan a swordsmith is still only allowed to manufacture two swords a month by law, for example.[9] As a result, many smiths travel to Taiwan or China to make extra swords for the export market as foreign-made swords are also illegal in Japan.[9] Bladesmithing is still practiced in the cities of Sakai (Osaka Prefecture) and Seki (Gifu Prefecture).[15]

The Germanic Migration period peoples also had advanced bladesmithing techniques for their level of technology. Migration Era smiths would often forge-weld blades of multiple materials, and their blades were typically double-edged and straight. Migration Era blades were often forged with a hard steel edge wrapped around a pattern welded core. Pattern welding was adopted from the neighbouring Romans, who had employed such technique since the second century AD.[16][17]

Bladesmithing was common practice in India and the Middle East during the Middle Ages. A special type of steel known as Wootz or Damascus steel was often used in these areas. The term Damascus steel can refer to two different types of artefacts. One is the true Damascus steel, or Wootz steel, which is a high carbon alloy with tremendous edge retention possibly due to its composition of carbon nanotubes and carbide nanowires,[18] with a wavy surface texture originating from the crystalline structure of alloy metals such as tungsten and vanadium - elements that occur naturally in iron ore from southern India - to the surface during the manufacturing process. This is still in debate as metallurgist John Verhoeven at Iowa State University believes the nanowires to occur in most steels. The other is a composite structure made by welding together iron and steel to give a visible pattern on the surface, called pattern welded steel. Although both were referred to as Damascus steels, true Damascus steels were not replicated in Europe until 1821.[19]

Bladesmithing began declining after the Industrial Revolution. With improvements in steel production, bladesmiths no longer had to forge steel and knives could be machined from flat bars of steel.[20] As cutlery companies moved to mass production of blades and machine tools became more available, the art of forging steel began to disappear as knifemakers could grind blades out of existing stock.[20] By the mid 20th century, bladesmithing had been relegated to a cottage industry carried out by a handful of bladesmiths.[21]

One of these bladesmiths was William F. Moran, who forged his knives using a coal forge in the manner of a blacksmith using a hammer and anvil to shape the steel. Moran began trying to revive the ancient process of forging Damascus steel in the late 1960s. However, no living bladesmith knew the exact techniques and without a recipe for the process, it was in danger of being lost; through trial and error he taught himself pattern welding and referred to his end product as "Damascus steel".[22]

In 1972, Moran was elected president of the Knifemakers' Guild. The following year he unveiled his "Damascus knives" at the Guild Show and created a revival of interest in the forged blade, and along with the knives he gave away free booklets detailing how he made them, to encourage other knifemakers to take up the hammer and anvil.[23] In 1976 he founded the American Bladesmith Society (ABS). Despite its name, this was an international group of knife makers dedicated to preserving the forged blade and educating the public about traditional bladesmithing techniques.[24] The handful of traditional bladesmiths in the 1960s rose to several hundred by 2005.[21]

The basic art and principles of forging a blade has remained similar for thousands of years and the modern bladesmith uses a variety of tools and techniques in order to produce a blade.[5] Forges formerly fed by wood, coke, or coal are still in use, but gas forges are becoming the standard.[5] Likewise the smith's hammer is being eclipsed by the use of hydraulic forging presses and power hammers.[5]

Modern bladesmiths use a variety of steels to produce their blades, most commonly high carbon steel, such as SAE 1075 or SAE 1095 (the '10' representing the 10-series carbon steels, while '75' '85' and '95' reflect the carbon content of the steel), tool steel such as O-1, A-2, D2 other tool or high carbon steels, or a variety of steels welded in layers, commonly referred to as "Damascus".[25]

When forging, the blade material is heated to a high temperature or forging temperature in a forge and shaped with a hammer on an anvil to achieve the desired shape, often to near final dimension, where very little stock removal, if any, is required to finish. Steel can be folded either to form decorative pattern welded steel or to refine raw steel, or as the Japanese call it, tamahagane. Grain size is kept at a minimum as grain growth can happen quite easily if the blade material is overheated.[4]

Swords and longer blades, in modern times, are often crafted of 5160 carbon spring steel, which is not as hard or brittle as a high carbon steel (such as 1095), but is more durable and less prone to breakage, and therefore more suitable for longer weapons.[26] 5160 carbon spring steel is sometimes used for leaf springs in American trucks, making it readily available in the US.[27] In Europe, EN-45 is more commonly used.[28]

Many bladesmiths are able to forge a special type of steel using a technique called pattern welding, producing a metal erroneously referred to as Damascus steel.[29][30][31] Modern pattern-welded steel can be highly decorative as well as durable (if welded in certain ways with proper steels), and is often used in custom knife- and sword-crafting. Bill Moran is said to be the "Father of Modern Damascus Steel".[22][32]

1.
Nuremberg
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Nuremberg is a city on the river Pegnitz and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia, about 170 kilometres north of Munich. It is the second-largest city in Bavaria, and the largest in Franconia, the population as of February 2015, is 517,498, which makes it Germanys fourteenth-largest city. The urban area also includes Fürth, Erlangen and Schwabach with a population of 763,854. The European Metropolitan Area Nuremberg has ca.3.5 million inhabitants, Nuremberg was, according to the first documentary mention of the city in 1050, the location of an Imperial castle between the East Franks and the Bavarian March of the Nordgau. From 1050 to 1571, the city expanded and rose dramatically in importance due to its location on key trade routes, Nuremberg is often referred to as having been the unofficial capital of the Holy Roman Empire, particularly because Imperial Diet and courts met at Nuremberg Castle. The Diets of Nuremberg were an important part of the structure of the empire. The increasing demand of the court and the increasing importance of the city attracted increased trade. Nuremberg soon became, with Augsburg, one of the two great trade centers on the route from Italy to Northern Europe. In 1298, the Jews of the town were accused of having desecrated the host, behind the massacre of 1298 was also the desire to combine the northern and southern parts of the city, which were divided by the Pegnitz. The Jews of the German lands suffered many massacres during the plague years, in 1349, Nurembergs Jews were subjected to a pogrom. They were burned at the stake or expelled, and a marketplace was built over the former Jewish quarter, the plague returned to the city in 1405,1435,1437,1482,1494,1520 and 1534. Charles was the patron of the Frauenkirche, built between 1352 and 1362, where the Imperial court worshipped during its stays in Nuremberg. Charles IV conferred upon the city the right to conclude alliances independently, frequent fights took place with the burgraves without, however, inflicting lasting damage upon the city. Through these and other acquisitions the city accumulated considerable territory, the Hussite Wars, recurrence of the Black Death in 1437, and the First Margrave War led to a severe fall in population in the mid-15th century. During the Middle Ages, Nurembergs literary culture was rich, varied, the cultural flowering of Nuremberg, in the 15th and 16th centuries, made it the centre of the German Renaissance. In 1525, Nuremberg accepted the Protestant Reformation, and in 1532, during the 1552 revolution against Charles V, Nuremberg tried to purchase its neutrality, but the city was attacked without a declaration of war and was forced into a disadvantageous peace. The state of affairs in the early 16th century, increased trade routes elsewhere, frequent quartering of Imperial, Swedish and League soldiers, the financial costs of the war and the cessation of trade caused irreparable damage to the city and a near-halving of the population. In 1632, the city, occupied by the forces of Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, was besieged by the army of Imperial general Albrecht von Wallenstein, the city declined after the war and recovered its importance only in the 19th century, when it grew as an industrial centre

2.
Knife
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A knife is a tool with a cutting edge or blade, hand-held or otherwise, with most having a handle. Some types of knives are used as utensils, including knives used at the dining table, many types of knives are used as tools, such as the utility knife carried by soldiers, the pocket knife carried by hikers and the hunting knife used by hunters. Knives are also used as a traditional or religious implement, such as the kirpan, some types of knives are used as weapons, such as daggers or switchblades. Some types of knives are used as sports equipment, Knives are also used in agriculture, food harvesting etc. the sickle, the scythe and even the combine harvester are knives. Knife-like tools were used at least two-and-a-half million years ago, as evidenced by the Oldowan tools. Originally made of rock, bone, flint, and obsidian, knives have evolved in construction as technology has, with blades being made from bronze, copper, iron, steel, ceramics, many cultures have their unique version of the knife. Due to its role as humankinds first tool, certain cultures have attached spiritual, most modern-day knives follow either a fixed-blade or a folding construction style, with blade patterns and styles as varied as their makers and countries of origin. The word knife possibly descends from an old Norse word knifr for blade, single-edged knives may have a reverse edge or false edge occupying a section of the spine. These edges are serrated and are used to further enhance function. The handle, used to grip and manipulate the blade safely, may include a tang, Knives are made with partial tangs or full tangs. The handle may include a bolster, a piece of heavy material situated at the front or rear of the handle, the bolster, as its name suggests, is used to mechanically strengthen the knife. Knife blades can be manufactured from a variety of materials, each of which has advantages and disadvantages, carbon steel, an alloy of iron and carbon, can be very sharp. It holds its edge well, and remains easy to sharpen, stainless steel is an alloy of iron, chromium, possibly nickel, and molybdenum, with only a small amount of carbon. It is not able to quite as sharp an edge as carbon steel. High carbon stainless steel is steel with a higher amount of carbon, intended to incorporate the better attributes of carbon steel. High carbon stainless steel blades do not discolor or stain, laminate blades use multiple metals to create a layered sandwich, combining the attributes of both. For example, a harder, more brittle steel may be sandwiched between a layer of softer, tougher, stainless steel to reduce vulnerability to corrosion. In this case, however, the part most affected by corrosion, pattern-welding is similar to laminate construction

3.
Sword
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A sword is a long bladed weapon intended for slashing or thrusting. The precise definition of the term varies with the epoch or the geographical region under consideration. A sword consists of a blade attached to a hilt. The blade can be straight or curved, thrusting swords have a pointed tip on the blade, and tend to be straighter, slashing swords have sharpened cutting edge on one or both sides of the blade, and are more likely to be curved. Many swords are designed for thrusting and slashing. Historically, the sword developed in the Bronze Age, evolving from the dagger, the later Iron Age sword remained fairly short and without a crossguard. The word sword continues the Old English, sweord, the use of a sword is known as swordsmanship or as fencing. In the Early Modern period, western sword design diverged into two forms, the thrusting swords and the sabers. The thrusting swords such as the rapier and eventually the smallsword were designed to impale their targets quickly and their long and straight yet light and well balanced design made them highly maneuverable and deadly in a duel but fairly ineffective when used in a slashing or chopping motion. A well aimed lunge and thrust could end a fight in seconds with just the swords point, the saber and similar blades such as the cutlass were built more heavily and were more typically used in warfare. Built for slashing and chopping at multiple enemies, often from horseback, most sabers also had sharp points and double edged blades, making them capable of piercing soldier after soldier in a cavalry charge. Sabers continued to see use until the early 20th century. The US Navy kept tens of thousands of sturdy cutlasses in their armory well into World War II, non-European weapons called sword include single-edged weapons such as the Middle Eastern scimitar, the Chinese dao and the related Japanese katana. The Chinese jian is an example of a non-European double-edged sword, the first weapons that can be described as swords date to around 3300 BC. They have been found in Arslantepe, Turkey, are made from arsenical bronze, some of them are inlaid with silver. The sword developed from the dagger when the construction of longer blades became possible, from the late 3rd millennium BC in the Middle East, first in arsenic copper, then in tin-bronze. Blades longer than 60 cm were rare and not practical until the late Bronze Age because the strength of bronze is relatively low. These are the type A swords of the Aegean Bronze Age, one of the most important, and longest-lasting, types swords of the European Bronze Age was the Naue II type, also known as Griffzungenschwert

4.
Dagger
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A dagger is a knife with a very sharp point designed or capable of being used as a thrusting or stabbing weapon. Daggers have been used throughout human experience for close combat confrontations, the distinctive shape and historic usage of the dagger have made it iconic and symbolic. A dagger in the sense is a weapon designed for close-proximity combat or self-defence, due to its use in historic weapon assemblages, it has associations with maleness. Double-edged knives, however, play different sorts of roles in different social contexts, in some cultures, they are neither a weapon nor a tool, but a potent symbol of manhood, in others they are ritual objects used in sacred body modifications such as circumcision. Most daggers also feature a full crossguard to keep the hand from riding forwards onto the blade edges. Daggers are primarily weapons, so knife legislation in many places restricts their manufacture, sale, possession, transport, the earliest daggers were made of materials such as flint, ivory or bone in Neolithic times. Copper daggers appeared first in the early Bronze Age, in the 3rd millennium BCE, in ancient Egypt, daggers were usually made of copper or bronze, while royalty had gold weapons. At least since pre-dynastic Egypt, daggers were adorned as ceremonial objects with golden hilts and later even more ornate, one early silver dagger was recovered with midrib design. The 1924 opening of the tomb of Tutankhamun revealed two daggers, one with a blade, and one of smelted iron. It is held that mummies of the Eleventh Dynasty were buried with bronze sabres, as late as Mene-ptah II. of the Nineteenth Dynasty, we read it in the list of his loot, after the Prosopis battle, of bronze armour, swords and daggers. One of the earliest objects made of smelted iron is a dating to before 2000 BCE. Found in a Hattic royal tomb dated about 2500 BCE, at Alaca Höyük in northern Anatolia, the dagger has an iron blade. The exceptional purity of Iberian iron and the method of forging. Iberian infantrymen carried several types of iron daggers, most of them based on shortened versions of double-edged swords, Iberian daggers and swords were later adopted by Hannibal and his Carthaginian armies. During the Roman Empire, legionaries were issued a pugio, a double-edged iron thrusting dagger with a blade of 7–12 inches. The design and fabrication of the pugio was taken directly from Iberian daggers and short swords, the Romans even adopted the triangular-bladed Iberian dagger, like the gladius, the pugio was most often used as a thrusting. As an extreme close-quarter combat weapon, the pugio was the Roman soldiers last line of defense, when not in battle, the pugio served as a convenient utility knife. The earliest known depiction of a dagger is the so-called Guido relief inside the Grossmünster of Zürich

5.
Blade
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A blade is the portion of a tool, weapon, or machine with an edge that is designed to puncture, chop, slice or scrape surfaces or materials. A blade may be made from a stone, such as flint, metal, ceramic. Blades are one of humanitys oldest tools, and continue to be used for combat, food preparation, during food preparation, knives are mainly used for slicing, chopping, and piercing. In combat, a blade may be used to slash or puncture, the function is to sever a nerve, muscle or tendon fibers, or blood vessel to disable or kill the adversary. Severing a major blood vessel typically leads to death due to exsanguination, shrapnel causes wounds via the fragments blade-like nature. Blades may be used to scrape, moving the blade sideways across a surface, a simple blade intended for cutting has two faces that meet at an edge. Ideally this edge would have no roundness but in practice all edges can be seen to be rounded to some degree under magnification either optically or with an electron microscope, force is applied to the blade, either from the handle or pressing on the back of the blade. The handle or back of the blade has a large area compared to the fine edge and this concentration of applied force onto the small edge area increases the pressure exerted by the edge. It is this pressure that allows a blade to cut through a material by breaking the bonds between the molecules/crystals/fibres/etc. in the material. This necessitates the blade being strong enough to resist breaking before the material gives way. The angle at which the meet is important as a larger angle will make for a duller blade while making the edge stronger. A stronger edge is likely to dull from fracture or from having the edge roll out of shape. The shape of the blade is also important, a thicker blade will be heavier and stronger and stiffer than a thinner one of similar design while also making it experience more drag while slicing or piercing. A splitting maul has a section to avoid getting stuck in wood where chopping axes can be flat or even concave. Similarly, pushing on a rope tends to squash the rope while drawing serrations across it sheers the rope fibres, drawing a smooth blade is less effective as the blade is parallel to the direction draw but the serrations of a serrated blade are at an angle to the fibres. Saw blade serrations, for wood and metal, are typically asymmetrical so that they cut while moving in only one direction. Fullers are longitudinal channels either forged into the blade or later machined/milled out of the blade though the process is less desirable. This loss of material necessarily weakens the blade but serves to make the lighter without sacrificing stiffness

6.
Forge
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A forge is a type of hearth used for heating metals, or the workplace where such a hearth is located. The forge is used by the smith to heat a piece of metal to a temperature where it easier to shape by forging. The metal is transported to and from the forge using tongs, the slack tub also provides water to control the fire in the forge. A forge typically uses bituminous coal, industrial coke or charcoal as the fuel to heat metal, the designs of these forges have varied over time, but whether the fuel is coal, coke or charcoal the basic design has remained the same. The forge fire in this type of forge is controlled in three ways, amount of air, volume of fuel, and shape of the fuel/fire, traditionally hearths have been constructed of mud brick, fired brick, stone, or later, constructed of iron. During operation, fuel is placed in or on the hearth, a source of moving air, such as a fan or bellows, introduces additional air into the fire through the tuyere. With additional air, the fire more fuel and burns hotter (and cleaner - smoke can be thought of as escaped potential fuel. A blacksmith balances the fuel and air in the fire to suit particular kinds of work, often this involves adjusting and maintaining the shape of the fire. In a typical coal forge, a firepot will be centered in a flat hearth, the tuyere will enter the firepot at the bottom. In operation, the hot core of the fire will be a ball of burning coke in, the heart of the fire will be surrounded by a layer of hot but not burning coke. Around the unburnt coke will be a layer of coal being transformed into coke by the heat of the fire. If a larger fire is necessary, the smith increases the air flowing into the fire as well as feeding and deepening the coke heart, the smith can also adjust the length and width of the fire in such a forge to accommodate different shapes of work. The major variation from the forge and fire just described is a draft where there is no fire pot. Coke and charcoal may be burned in the forges that use coal, but since there is no need to convert the raw fuel at the heart of the fire. A gas forge typically uses propane or natural gas as the fuel, one common, efficient design uses a cylindrical forge chamber and a burner tube mounted at a right angle to the body. The chamber is lined with refractory materials such as a hard castable refractory ceramic or a soft ceramic thermal blanket. The burner mixes fuel and air which are ignited at the tip, the air pressure, and therefore heat, can be increased with a mechanical blower or by taking advantage of the Venturi effect. A small forge can even be carved out of a single soft firebrick, the primary advantage of a gas forge is ease of use, particularly for a novice

7.
Hammer
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A hammer is a tool or device that delivers a blow to an object. Most hammers are hand tools used to drive nails, fit parts, forge metal, hammers vary in shape, size, and structure, depending on their purposes. Hammers are basic tools in many trades, the usual features are a head and a handle. Although most hammers are hand tools, powered versions exist, they are known as powered hammers, types of power hammer include steam hammers and trip hammers, often for heavier uses, such as forging. Some hammers have other names, such as sledgehammer, mallet, the term hammer also applies to devices that deliver blows, such as the hammer of a firearm or the hammer of a piano or the hammer ice scraper. The use of simple hammers dates to about 2,600,000 BCE when various shaped stones were used to strike wood, bone, or other stones to break them apart and shape them. Stones attached to sticks with strips of leather or animal sinew were being used as hammers with handles by about 30,000 BCE during the middle of the Paleolithic Stone Age. The hammers archeological record shows that it may be the oldest tool for which evidence exists of its early existence. A traditional hand-held hammer consists of a head and a handle, fastened together by means of a special wedge made for the purpose, or by glue. This two-piece design is used, to combine a dense metallic striking head with a non-metallic mechanical-shock-absorbing handle. If wood is used for the handle, it is often hickory or ash, rigid fiberglass resin may be used for the handle, this material does not absorb water or decay, but does not dissipate shock as well as wood. A loose hammer head is hazardous because it can fly off the handle when in use. Wooden handles can often be replaced when worn or damaged, specialized kits are available covering a range of sizes and designs. Some hammers are one-piece designs made primarily of a single material, a one-piece metallic hammer may optionally have its handle coated or wrapped in a resilient material such as rubber, for improved grip and reduced user fatigue. The hammer head may be surfaced with a variety of materials, including brass, bronze, wood, plastic, rubber, some hammers have interchangeable striking surfaces, which can be selected as needed or replaced when worn out. A large hammer-like tool is a maul, a wood- or rubber-headed hammer is a mallet, the essential part of a hammer is the head, a compact solid mass that is able to deliver a blow to the intended target without itself deforming. The impacting surface of the tool is usually flat or slightly rounded, some upholstery hammers have a magnetized face, to pick up tacks. In the hatchet, the hammer head may be secondary to the cutting edge of the tool

8.
Anvil
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An anvil is a block with a hard surface on which another object is struck. The block is as massive as is practical, because the higher the inertia of the anvil, on a quality anvil the smiths hammer should rebound with almost as much energy as the smith puts into the downward stroke, ultimately making the smiths job easier and less physically strenuous. In most cases the anvil is used as a forging tool, before the advent of modern welding technology, it was a primary tool of metal workers. The great majority of modern anvils are made of cast or forged steel that has been heat treated, inexpensive anvils have been made of cast iron and low quality steel, but are considered unsuitable for serious use as they deform and lack rebound when struck. Because anvils are very ancient tools and were at one time very commonplace, the primary work surface of the anvil is known as the face. It is generally made of hardened steel and should be flat, any marks on the face will be transferred to the work. Also, sharp edges tend to cut into the metal being worked, the face is hardened and tempered to resist the blows of the smiths hammer, so the anvil face does not deform under repeated use. A hard anvil face also reduces the amount of force lost in each hammer blow. Hammers, tools, and work pieces of hardened steel should never directly strike the face with full force, as they may damage it. The horn of the anvil is a conical projection used to form various shapes and is generally unhardened steel or iron. The horn is used mostly in bending operations and it also is used by some smiths as an aid in drawing down stock. Some anvils, mainly European, are made with two horns, one square and one round, also, some anvils are made with side horns or clips for specialized work. The step is that area of the anvil between the horn and the face, the hardie hole is a square hole into which specialized forming and cutting tools, called Hardy tools, are placed. It is also used in punching and bending operations, the pritchel hole is a small round hole that is present on most modern anvils. Some anvils have more than one and it is used mostly for punching. At times, smiths will fit a second tool to this hole to allow the more flexibility when using more than one anvil tool. An anvil needs to be placed upon a base made from an impact. It requires being fastened firmly to the base, so it not move when struck with a hammer

9.
Metalworking
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Metalworking is the process of working with metals to create individual parts, assemblies, or large-scale structures. The term covers a range of work from large ships and bridges to precise engine parts. It therefore includes a wide range of skills, processes. Metalworking is a science, art, hobby, industry and trade and its historical roots span cultures, civilizations, and millennia. Metalworking has evolved from the discovery of smelting various ores, producing malleable and ductile metal useful for tools, modern metalworking processes, though diverse and specialized, can be categorized as forming, cutting, or joining processes. Todays machine shop includes a number of machine tools capable of creating a precise, the oldest archaeological evidence of copper mining and working was the discovery of a copper pendant in northern Iraq from 8,700 BCE. The earliest substantiated and dated evidence of metalworking in the Americas was the processing of copper in Wisconsin, Copper was hammered until brittle then heated so it could be worked some more. This technology is dated to about 4000-5000 BCE, the oldest gold artifacts in the world come from the Bulgarian Varna Necropolis and date from 4450 BCE. Not all metal required fire to obtain it or work it, isaac Asimov speculated that gold was the first metal. His reasoning is that by its chemistry it is found in nature as nuggets of pure gold, in other words, gold, as rare as it is, is sometimes found in nature as the metal that it is. There are a few metals that sometimes occur natively. Almost all other metals are found in ores, a mineral-bearing rock, another feature of gold is that it is workable as it is found, meaning that no technology beyond a stone hammer and anvil to work the metal is needed. This is a result of properties of malleability and ductility. The earliest tools were stone, bone, wood, and sinew, at some unknown point the connection between heat and the liberation of metals from rock became clear, rocks rich in copper, tin, and lead came into demand. These ores were mined wherever they were recognized, remnants of such ancient mines have been found all over Southwestern Asia. Metalworking was being carried out by the South Asian inhabitants of Mehrgarh between 7000–3300 BCE, the end of the beginning of metalworking occurs sometime around 6000 BCE when copper smelting became common in Southwestern Asia. Ancient civilisations knew of seven metals. Here they are arranged in order of their potential, Iron +0.44 V

10.
Blacksmith
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A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects from wrought iron or steel by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut. Blacksmiths produce objects such as gates, grilles, railings, light fixtures, furniture, sculpture, tools, agricultural implements, decorative and religious items, cooking utensils and weapons. The black in blacksmith refers to the black fire scale, a layer of oxides that forms on the surface of the metal during heating. The origin of smith is debated, it may come from the old English word smythe meaning to strike or it may have originated from the Proto-German smithaz meaning skilled worker. Blacksmiths work by heating pieces of iron or steel until the metal becomes soft enough for shaping with hand tools, such as a hammer, anvil. Heating generally takes place in a forge fueled by propane, natural gas, coal, charcoal, some modern blacksmiths may also employ an oxyacetylene or similar blowtorch for more localized heating. Induction heating methods are gaining popularity among modern blacksmiths, color is important for indicating the temperature and workability of the metal. As iron heats to higher temperatures, it first glows red, then orange, yellow, the ideal heat for most forging is the bright yellow-orange color that indicates forging heat. Because they must be able to see the color of the metal, some blacksmiths work in dim, low-light conditions. The key is to have consistent lighting, but not too bright, the techniques of smithing can be roughly divided into forging, welding, heat-treating, and finishing. Forging—the process smiths use to shape metal by hammering—differs from machining in that forging does not remove material, instead, the smith hammers the iron into shape. Even punching and cutting operations by smiths usually re-arrange metal around the hole, drawing lengthens the metal by reducing one or both of the other two dimensions. As the depth is reduced, or the width narrowed, the piece is lengthened or drawn out, as an example of drawing, a smith making a chisel might flatten a square bar of steel, lengthening the metal, reducing its depth but keeping its width consistent. Drawing does not have to be uniform, a taper can result as in making a wedge or a woodworking chisel blade. If tapered in two dimensions, a point results, drawing can be accomplished with a variety of tools and methods. Two typical methods using only hammer and anvil would be hammering on the anvil horn, another method for drawing is to use a tool called a fuller, or the peen of the hammer, to hasten the drawing out of a thick piece of metal. Fullering consists of hammering a series of indentations with corresponding ridges, the resulting effect looks somewhat like waves along the top of the piece. Then the smith turns the hammer over to use the face to hammer the tops of the ridges down level with the bottoms of the indentations

11.
Woodworking
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Woodworking is the activity or skill of making items from wood, and includes cabinet making, wood carving, joinery, carpentry, and woodturning. Along with stone, clay and animal parts, wood was one of the first materials worked by early humans, microwear analysis of the Mousterian stone tools used by the Neanderthals show that many were used to work wood. The development of civilization was closely tied to the development of increasingly greater degrees of skill in working these materials, among early finds of wooden tools are the worked sticks from Kalambo Falls, Clacton-on-Sea and Lehringen. The spears from Schöningen provide some of the first examples of hunting gear. Flint tools were used for carving, since Neolithic times, carved wooden vessels are known, for example, from the Linear Pottery culture wells at Kückhofen and Eythra. Examples of Bronze Age wood-carving include tree trunks worked into coffins from northern Germany and Denmark, there is significant evidence of advanced woodworking in Ancient Egypt. Woodworking is depicted in extant ancient Egyptian drawings, and a considerable amount of ancient Egyptian furniture has been preserved. Tombs represent a collection of these artefacts and the inner coffins found in the tombs were also made of wood. The metal used by the Egyptians for woodworking tools was originally copper and eventually, commonly used woodworking tools included axes, adzes, chisels, pull saws, and bow drills. Mortise and tenon joints are attested from the earliest Predynastic period and these joints were strengthened using pegs, dowels and leather or cord lashings. Animal glue came to be used only in the New Kingdom period, Ancient Egyptians invented the art of veneering and used varnishes for finishing, though the composition of these varnishes is unknown. Woodworking was essential to the Romans and it provided, sometimes the only, material for buildings, transportation, tools, and household items. Vitruvius dedicates a chapter of his De architectura to timber. Pliny, while not a botanist, dedicated six books of his Natural History to trees and woody plants which provides a wealth of information on trees, the progenitors of Chinese woodworking are considered to be Lu Ban and his wife Lady Yun, from the Spring and Autumn period. Lu Ban is said to have introduced the plane, chalk-line and his teachings were supposedly left behind in the book Lu Ban Jing. Despite this, it is believed that the text was written some 1500 years after his death. This book is filled largely with descriptions of dimensions for use in building various items such as pots, tables, altars, etc. It mentions almost nothing of the intricate glue-less and nail-less joinery for which Chinese furniture was so famous, with the advances in modern technology and the demands of industry, woodwork as a field has changed

12.
Leather crafting
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Leather crafting or simply Leathercraft is the practice of making leather into craft objects or works of art, using shaping techniques, coloring techniques or both. Leather dyeing usually involves the use of spirit- or alcohol-based dyes where alcohol quickly gets absorbed into moistened leather, hi-liters and Antiquing stains can be used to add more definition to patterns. These have pigments that will away from the higher points of a tooled piece. Leaving parts unstained also provides a type of contrast, alternatives to spirit stains might include a number of options. Shoe polish can be used to dye and preserve leather, oils such as neatsfoot or linseed can be applied to preserve leather but darkens them. A wax paste more often than not serves as the final coat, sweat and grime will also stain and antique leather over time. Gun holsters, saddlebags, wallets and canteens used by cowboys, the red, brown, and black tones develop naturally through handling and as the oiled leathers absorb the rays of the desert sun. Due to changing laws, alcohol-based dyes are soon to be unavailable. There are currently water-based alternatives available, although they tend not to work as well, leather painting differs from leather dyeing in that paint remains only on the surface while dyes are absorbed into the leather. However, latex paints can be used to paint such flexible leather items, in the main though, a flat piece of leather, backed with a stiff board is ideal and common, though three-dimensional forms are possible so long as the painted surface remains secured. Acrylic paint is a medium, often painted on tooled leather pictures, backed with wood or cardboard. Unlike photographs, leather paintings are displayed without a glass cover, leather carving entails using metal implements to compress moistened leather in such a way as to give a three-dimensional appearance to a two-dimensional surface. The surface of the leather is not intended to be cut through, the main tools used to carve leather include, swivel knife, veiner, beveler, pear shader, seeder, cam, and background tool. The swivel knife is similar to pencil and drawn along the leather to outline patterns. The other tools are punch-type implements struck with a wooden, nylon or rawhide mallet, the object is to add further definition with them to the cut lines made by the swivel knife. In the United States and Mexico, the floral style, known as Sheridan Style. Usually, these are stylized pictures of acanthis or roses, california, Texas, and a few other styles are common. By far the most preeminent carver in the United States was Al Stohlman and his patterns and methods have been embraced by many hobbyists, scout troops, reenacters, and craftsmen